14 AUGUST 2004, Page 26

They're at it again!

From Sheridan Morley

Sir: 0 God, here we go again. I did not at any time 'review. . . a show [II hadn't actually seen' for the Daily Express (Arts, 7 August). What I did was to preview a show by Barbara Cook which I had seen many, many times in New York and elsewhere. Moreover the preview, had Toby Young cared to read it, was carefully flagged as such: nobody ever suggested it was a review, except one or two rival papers oddly uneasy about having the Express revert to major theatre coverage.

It is, I guess, some consolation for having Young back on the theatre column that he now promises to stay to the end of any show he reviews; it would be even better if he got his facts right.

Sheridan Morley

London SW11